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Friday, November 20, 2009

New "Semester" Scheme For Form 6?

I've received the following complaint from a Form 6 student. I don't agree with the bits which said some of the activities are a "waste of time", but the concern over long school hours is very valid. When commenting, please remember that the writer is a 17-year-old.

I am a lower 6 student. A new system has recently been implemented in all schools with Form Six classes throughout the country. All Lower Six classes from 2009 will have to stay back until 4pm. This new system started in my school in early July.I found out from the teachers that this batch (2009/2010) was used to try out the suitability of the semester-based system to be implemented in schools in the future. Unfortunately for us, our exams are still not semester-based.

Staying back till 4pm means we, Lower Six students will not have a chance to participate in the extra-curricular activities as all the club and uniformed body meetings are held after 1pm. What about our co-curriculum marks? We were told that 10% of the overall criteria to enter local universities is from our involvement in co-curricular activities.

Before this new system was implemented, we all could go for our co-curricular activities. With the new system in place, we are forced to stay back and could not involve ourself in such activities as the timing will clash with us as most activities are held after school. While co-curricular activities make up 10% of our total STPM grades, I strongly believe there must be other alternatives. I don’t think a person who has four distinctions, but without any co-curricular achievements will be selected to enter a local university.

So, why should we stay until 4 o’clock seen that such things we are doing now are no contribute any marks to our STPM?

The new system is a complete waste of time. The new system requires students to stay back after school until 4pm for activities. But the activities organised by the school to keep students until 4pm is not a good idea. The extra time that we are required to put in in school is used for nonsensical activities such as making posters, doing sketches, preparing for presentations and proposals and doing research and development (R&D).

Besides this , some activities are really of no use to us. For example, during cocuriculum , we even told to prepare food, play on the field under the hot sun from 2.40pm - 4pm and planning how to decorate this school. I do not see the teaching and learning value here as these activities are a waste of time! In addition, some students hate it so much that they decided to skip school altogether.

I understand that this system is a part of the Education Ministry’s initiative in boosting the level of confidence and enhancing communicative ability among school students while doing presentation. But please be rational and reasonable. Ministry need to take cognizance that we are humans too. All of us need more time to study and staying back till 4pm is just too much on our plates. The moment we reach home, most of us will be dead tired. By the time we get home, we will be exhausted because we have been in school since 7.30am. Many of us would be too tired after coming back from school and just hop on to the bed into dreamland even if they wish to study.

Furthermore, not to forget the amount of assignments given by our teachers and we have to complete everything on time. By then we would be too tired to study. Preparing for presentations and projects requires a lot of our attention and time, so we will struggle to cope with our studies. Our main priority is still our studies! Without time to revise, how are we supposed to live our dreams of attaining a 4.0 score?

But forcing us to stay back after school will deprive us of the chance to revise our lessons. An ample amount of time is needed for us to carry out constant revision. However with the time constraints, there is certainly no time for us to study at home! Even if we do have the time, we would suffer from fatigue. The ministry fails to see the light that whatever there doing is in fact making our lives even more miserable, stressful and very depressing. Will this result in good achievement in the STPM exams? Definitely NO!!!

Many parents decided to send their children to Form Six as it is the cheapest route to universities. But now not any more. We have to fork out our own money for our lunch expenses. By right, if the Education Ministry wants to carry this out, they should at least think about giving lunch allowances to us. Now, parents will need to fork out additional expenses for their child’s lunch. Not everyone is well-to-do. In these times where money does not come easy, forking out extra money will be a burden to them as the overall house expenditure would have increased as well.

Another woe is that we are only given an hour for our lunch break before we begin our presentation; it is impossible for students to head home to have a home-cooked meal, take a bath and have a short break and then rush back to school before 2 o’clock. Most of us will not be able to eat at home as we are not living nearby. Therefore, students are left with no other alternatives but to patronise nearby mamak stalls for their lunch. Needless to say, food sold at mamak stalls can be unhealthy and unhygienic. And since the mamak stalls usually serves oily and non-nutritious food, the students are not benefiting at all as it make us feel lethargic. With the lack of nutritious food, how are we to maintain a healthy body to study hard and achieve good result in STPM?

On the other hand, transportation is a major problem for most of us. Our parents are not free to send us home. Left with no other immediate solutions in sight, we have to rely on public transport like buses. Taking the school bus at odd hours costs extra as it is inconvenient for the drivers. Some of us are not living nearby and thus, walking back home will be out of the question and too dangerous for us students considering the disturbingly high number of snatch theft cases across the country.

Besides that, prolonged exposure to the afternoon sun could lead to skin cancer. Do we want to wait till years later to find out that many of our future generation who took Form Six were to suffer from skin cancer because of this new system? It is undeniable that life in the sixth form can be pretty daunting and challenging.

Not only are the students disatisfied with this new system, the teachers are unhappy. They could not express their feeling as they could risk losing their jobs. Almost every teacher I have spoken to, too, did not agree with this new system.They feel that the time spent in school is way too long! Forget about the students, even the teachers are grumbling! Teachers and students alike are exhausted by the end of the day.So, how do we expect teachers to perform their best when they are tired? Needless to say, students too have a hard time concentrating in the hot and stuffy afternoon classes.It is not fair for the teachers who teach the Form Six classes for they have to stay back for longer hours compared to their other colleagues. Wake up! The new system brings nothing but stress and red tape.

I acknowledged that some authorities would advice us to quit form six if we despise or hate the system. However, as far as I concerned, we are totally not being informed about this 4pm-stay-back system until a few week after we enrolled. We are the victims and we got no other better options than form six but as a student, we have the right to protect our right and express our feeling. The system will continue to be part of our lives for next years. So, we need to change. There is no point “testing” as the Malaysian education system is not a playground or lab where future leaders were “tested” with new policies. We as the students are not “guinea pigs”. If we were to continue to “test” policies on our children, our education system will be seen as a joke in the international arena.

Last but not least, I only hope next year we can revert back to the old system where everyone can go home like normal or 1pm. I sincerely hope you will help us. Thank you.

Besides that, prolonged exposure to the afternoon sun could lead to skin cancer. Do we want to wait till years later to find out that many of our future generation who took Form Six were to suffer from skin cancer because of this new system? It is undeniable that life in the sixth form can be pretty daunting and challenging.

From the comments in the letter itself, it is the very essence of the need of change.Our 6th formers definitily do not understand the concept of education and pre-u studies.1. Education includes the very skills of research, presentation, organisation, brainstorming, giving back to soceity, social skills etc etc.Knowledge is but a small part.All these are living skills needed for your life long survival in the working world and your life in general.2. It is a shame that teachers do not understand the various roles they need to play for pre-u students. There is academic councelling, career advice, studying skills and living skills (as mentioned above)that can be taught after school. The activities recommended for the kids need gyuidance. Pre- u is also time when the children undergo the change from a spoon fed to an independent learner, a child/teenager to an adult. Just think of all the problems faced by them which includes social, career and family.Sit with the kids, get to know them, guide them, be a listening eye and a watchful eye for the parents. Be a friend. All these I did as a 6th form teacher for 27 years so pls don't mourn that it is not ur job or that it can't be done.3. Please note that time management is another skill to acguire in 6th form(another living skill). Private school kids, SAM student A-level stuidents, undergrads take education as a full time commitment.If you do not learn to manage time, what do you plan to do when you reach adulthood when you have to be a parent, take you MBA, do overtime and look after your aged parents?Even as an undergrad, one need to plan your day.Have you heard of any university which operate only half a day? 4. as far as food prices are concern, school authorities should look into the problem.The ministry have recently promoted 6th former teachers and a special senior assistant for the 6th former. They need to sit down, look into the students needs and problems.Plan a schedule, train the teachers, work the plan.Present problems to the ministry aboutr the koko marks and the problems faced by the broad syallabus(if that is a problem) Reverting to the old system is a step backwards. 6th formers need to compete with the rest of the world.

I guess education is not only about getting all As (not discounting the fact that getting good grades for certain competitive programs like Med is important), but also a wholesome experience.

The move to include extra-curricular activities is indeed a good one, as it gives pre-U students the room to improve their communication and leadership skills in resource limited public schools.

During my pre-U days, classes start from 8am - 4pm, and some of us were involved in various co-curricular activities like drama, public speaking and sports. While not every student would be keen to go for these activities, some picked it up and still do very well in their studies.

There are a lot of formative group works, internally assessed quizzes and presentations that we had to prepare (which kept us busy). We had little time to study until the last few months prior to exams, and we had to carefully manage our time. Many end up doing very well.

I guess a more practical option for your case, is an optional co-curricular involvement for students who are keen, and limited compulsory/internally assessed co-curricular activities (eg: R&D, group work and presentation).

The time of which these activities are held, should be made flexible (Eg: free slots in the morning, weekends). Since all form 6 students are given federal scholarships/allowances (if I am not mistaken), food and transportation cost should not be a hindrance.

About Mamak stalls, I recommend teh tarik kurang manis and roti canai kurang minyak, or bring your own lunchbox with plenty of fruit. If you are fearful of skin cancer, sunblock lotions are aplenty and regular visits to the GP to detect any occult skin lesion would be helpful :)

If Form 6 is still too challenging, perhaps an early start to working life would be a better option.

I'm guessing that this is another 'seat of the pants' decision to trial a new system. The main complaint of the author seem to be that he/she lacks the time for revision. That is an issue of time management and is the author's personal problem to be solved personally. However, this issue of making the students do random things - may be due to lack of clear guidelines by the government on what activities to run and how to run them. This should hopefully be sorted out in time for the full roll-out of the new system nationwide (keeping fingers crossed).

But that said, I think that it is probably a nice idea to turn F6 life into something more akin to other pre-U lives. However, this should also mean plenty of time and facilities for self-study and revision, which I doubt our schools are able to cater to yet (from the letter). Schools need to give students the freedom to do extra activities of their choice and not enforced ones. Libraries need to be well stocked and equipped. Canteen services might need to be upgraded too.

F6 to last till 4 p.m. is a bit ridiculous given the fact that the comfort level at schools are still low. One reason I've always felt is because the teachers in Form 6 were automatically given a one grade bump upwards. More pay - longer hours. Anyway, that bump up is going to cause some other problems as well. Used to be most teachers would shun F6. In the end most of those who end up teaching F6 were those who were willing to take up the challenge because they were generally more confident of their abilities (read that as better teachers). With this new one grade bump up thing, everyone wants to jump onto that bandwagon. We might be seeing a deterioration of teaching quality in time to come.

It's not about being able to study for free as pointed out by one.. F6 students get a raw deal if compared to those who get Matrics as statistics has shown.

To study till 4 p.m. I think it's not quite necessary or practical. The writer is also right... what of co-curricular activities. What of that 10% requirement?

This person is scared that there is no time left to do revision after the long school hours. Let me tell you this: I'm undergoing my pre-u now and most of the time, I can only leave back o my hostel after 5pm! Add that to my other obligation as President of certain clubs, festival celebrations, assignments and tonnes of other co-curricular activities and see who is much worse off! However, I don't complain, its part of my duty and I loe what I'm doing. It all boils down to time management and developing a passion for the activities involved(no matter how dry it may seem).

I do agree this person seems to complain a lot, and I feel funny on some point he pointed out - skin cancer and mamak stall is trivial and serve nothing but a laugh.

But other than that, I could understand some of his arguments, as I had experienced being a form 6 student and also a college (PRE-U) student, so it is entirely unfair to say that his letter was just a mere whine and baseless...

I believe some of the people that comment here are college students, and it is good for me to provide some difference of Form 6 student life and college student life...

1. In terms of facilities, colleges are equipped with air condition, while most classrooms in form 6 institution are not. The difference can be really big- in terms of comfort to student. During my college years, I can stay from 8 am to 4 pm with some slight tiredness, while staying for 7 to 1 in a form 6 school will result to extreme tiredness and uniform soaked with sweat because of the hot weather.

Our college canteen was air conditioned while the school canteen was not, and eating in afternoon in hot stuffed canteen can really be a unpleasant experience.

2. College students also enjoyed better transportation compared to form 6 student, as form 6 student can mostly rely om public transport and parent's transportation...I had no trouble staying from 8 am to 8pm , because there's always a college bus to fetch me back. On the other hand, during my form 6 life, there was one time I had to stay until 3p.m. and the experience of waiting a bus to fetch me back to my home (which was 7km away from school) was definitely not a pleasant experience.

3. Also noted that form 6 syllabus is harder as compared to college students, (I had no statistic to prove this, but you could compare the matriculation textbook and a form 6 textbook to notice it yourself) and the fact that they are given little placement in universities make their life more harder, as they need to study more and excel better to get a place in local university.

I still believe that co-curiculum activity is necessary, and I benefited a lot by those "out of school" activity, but making it an obligation is never a good idea, given the time constraint and the competitivity among form 6 student.

And I think the author should get on with it as you couldn't expect the education ministry to do anything, but at the same time, I would like those people that criticized, to understand how such changes can cause problems to a form 6 student.

I was in Form 6 many years ago. Form 6 was a very very tough time, the syllabus was packed and the duration was very short. It was a time of great test of a person psychological endurance and toughness.

Please do not compare this to private school, A-levels and Pre-U.

"Time management" is a buzzword. Please remember time has a limit too, a person's physical condition and energy level has a limit too. Better time management can only carry you till a certain degree. With a great deal of work, there is still such a thing call "not enough time" even with all the time management skills a person could possibly muster.

And even though I am a firm believer of education for knowledge and self development, form 6 is not the time to experiment these things.

People enter form 6 because they do not have financial options like entering A-levels, private school. People who enter form 6 do not have much options for their education. Why live through such tough time if you have the money for other options? At the end of form 6, you have to undergo dubious selection process for the university which may or may not be "meritocratic"? To many form 6 kids, not being able to get themselves into a public U would mean no tertiary education for them. A person can learn things like presentation skills when they are actually REQUIRED to present things much later in life,and they will learn it better at this time when they see the value of it.

You go to form 6 to get yourself into a public university,and that is the goal.

There is such a reality call CLASS DIFFERENCE, financial imperatives and trying to improve one's economic position in life.

Please sympathize with this poor kid.

* I was one of the top 160 students out of 60,000 candidates for STPM during my time, and I seriously did think there is not enough time even when I did not have to stay till 4pm. Form 6 makes me a tougher person and I wish the best to this youngster, a victim of our unjust education system.

1) STPM students DO stay back for extra co-curicular activities. As far as I know,the form fix students in my school have to stay back for co-curicular activities at least once a week. It is done between the 1-4pm period, once a week.

2) Dude, all the "nonsensical activities such as making posters, doing sketches, preparing for presentations and proposals and doing research and development (R&D)" will actually help you in the future to face the real world. Trust me, all these skills are emphasized in all unis and colleges throughout the world.Plus staying back until 4pm isn't that bad. Some college/uni students even stayed back until 5-6pm!

3) About the food part, why can't you eat in the school canteen. Isn't the school canteen supposed to sell food and drinks at reasonable prices? Eg: I can buy my lunch in school for only RM4 a day. I can buy mix rice and a drink with that price.

4) If you are tired after a whole long day, you can sleep in the evening and then study at night la... It's called time management.Btw, what about all those working ppl? Some of them even worked OT. It's not only you who is having problems.

5) About the transportation part, can't you car pool your friend? I'm sure that there are some of your friends who live nearby. Or if not, why choose to study somewhere far from your house in the first place?

6) Going into the afternoon sun would not lead you to getting skin cancer. You can always wear sunblock if you want.

7) I understand about the teacher being unhappy part. Of course la! Who in the world would be happy working OT without any "ganjaran".

I studied in a secondary school in a small town in Johor.When I was in Form 3 and Form 5, we had mandatory additional classes until 3pm-4pm almost daily, including weekends and almost every week during school holidays. (Those classes were free. Yeah, I was lucky, my secondary teachers were very willing, caring and dedicated. Of course, at that time I complained too, but I never thought myself as a victim of an unfair system that was designed for my own good!)

And every Saturday we had co-curr activities.Most of my friends relied on public transportations, and in kampung2, after the bus dropped them off, most of them had to walk for quite a distance before they reached home. So, can imagine what time they reached home.To save money, we always tapau from home. So we'd have extra money if we need to buy food at school canteen before additional classes started.

I better stop before I go on and on and on..I'm very disappointed after reading the writer's writer.To whine, and to actually think him/herself as a victim is really ... embarrassing. I really, really hope that nobody skip school or leave form 6 altogether because of this. Everyone is entitled to his/her views, but in this case, one would think that the best course is to deal with it and make full use of it!

It depends on the planning of the timetable after school hours. I have a hand in planning the timetable. The students are given about half an hour to forty five minutes for lunch after which is tutorial for all subjects according to specified days. So instead of attending paid tuition classes the students attend extra classes during which the teacher gets to discuss questions related to the topics taught. I find tutorial classes very relevant to the subjects I teach as I wish my students to be able to apply what they have learnt.

As with regard to cocuricular activities, it is only held twice a week, and that also if there is any activity. If there is none at all the students are allowed to go home.

Colloqium hours that are set aside is an opportunity for students to learn to stand in front of an audience and present a topic what he or she has researched on. So students acquire skills to work independently and also to speak with confidence.

Probably what is causing students to feel uncomfortable is the lack of facilities like aircon and shower rooms. The afternoon heat is not conducive for long hours of activities.

Looking at the positive side of it there is much to be gained if the timetable is properly planned.

Empathy. I think that's something we would have to have in mind when reading these sort of articles. Its always easy to just say "shut up and get on with school and stop complaining and all since its free". But 9 hours of studying a day can be quite hectic.

Forget abt local U. Why choose second best when you are the best? Score your STPM well and get a life out there in more prestigious Unis in other countries. I believe your new Uni life (NOT LOCAL U) will also be 'free of charge' provided you are given scholarship award, which I think is not an issue at all for STPM top scorers.

Way back before any of this was even suggested by the government, my school had this sort of system for Form Three, Five and Upper Six students. We were given an hour of lunch break, and ended our extra classes at 4.30PM. Extra-curricular activities were all scheduled to be at 5PM and ended at 6PM.

Get this: Nobody whined. Teachers did their jobs happily, students attended their classes without complaining. Everything ran smoothly.

On to what I believe is the key problem. The only reason why we're reading this letter today is due to the overall reluctance of stepping out of one's comfort zone. Our author here is merely just responding to the shock to such a radically different system. And reading the letter, it would appear that the teachers of the author's school share the same problem as well.

Why did nobody complain in my school? Because: a) the system had been established for a long time; and b) it was well implemented, which I suspect is not the case in the author's school.

if you need a lot of time after school for revision, that often indicates that you're either not paying enough attention or actually trying to understand the subject matter in class.

revision at end of day should not take more than 90 mins for all the subjects covered for the day. it should be just a quick recap. ofcourse with such a schedule the muggers will suffer because of the lack of time.

i hope that this encourages students to be sharper in class and to ask when in doubt during lessons. no doubt presentations and group communications take up a large chunk of professional life further on so it's good to be involved in them.

i just finished my form 6 last year, and i think that it is better to study until 4pm.first of all, you got more time to be taught by your teachers.secondly, well, this may not be as good as your Kokurikulum, but well, at least you can get a chance to have a fun time with your friends. =) so, those of you in form6 this year, good luck in your studies, and enjoy!

i am a matriculation student and our p&p also end up at 4pm.however, we still could involve in co-curiculor programmes. you should blame this to your principal who did not organise the students properly

1. The kid is a whiner. I say this because I was a form sixer and at that time (in 1995) we had to take 5 subjects. Now kids take 4. In 1995, our syllabus was in entirely in Malay and there were no revision books out there. Just text books. We had no internet to do research, and yes we had to do research too. What did we do? We hunted A-levels books down and studied them in English and sit for the exams in Malay. We took buses (those crazy death defying pink buses in kl-ask your parents about them...)to all sorts of libraries to get hold of past year papers and do research, not to mention that we were the first batch to have the research grade as part of our STPM results. We had no reference. And to top it off, at that time, the syllabus was as wide as they sky.

2. Mamak food. You actually have the luxury of eating at the mamak stall? What happened to the canteen? No canteen?

3. Going home and returning to school at 2pm... But you have to bathe and eat and rest? This is a classic Malaysia apa pun Boleh cakap attitude... sigh

4. Cancer... do you know that some children in Phnom Penh don't go to school? They work in landfills searching for plastic cups to be recycled? They risk getting run down by garbage trucks, they have no water to bathe (reinforcing point number 3)and they risk inhaling toxic stinks? there is such thing as the retractable umbrella

5. Because you took up the challenge of STPM, hold up your head high and just do it. It was tough-ER for us then... but my contemporaries and I never regretted it. We were employable It was boot camp for us and it is for you too. We became more resilient, not to mention smarter and a whole of things became easier to understand and tackle in Uni and life. So suck it in and quit complaining. You need this. And I have to say, many students today need a little of this to wake them up from their comfy butts.

I believe that if anyone is to judge, it is to be a form 6 students ourselves or better yet, ex-form 6 students.

I'm sorry in advance if my english is a bit hard to read.Still not really good at it myself.

Currently i am 19(Upper 6) and i would like to express my point of view.

Being in form 6, it is not easy AT ALL.We do not only have the general stress but also the stress of other co-corricular activities.Besides that, teachers will also give us form 6-ers most of the school projects and works because they trust us more.Sometimes -depending on the teacher-, if we ask to not participate or help them, they would understand.But usually, they wont let us off.They would rather have us do the work rather than the 4th or 5th formers due to reasons i need not explain here.

i also would like to point out, BEING IN FORM 6 IS NOT LIKE A-LEVELS OR MATRICULATION.WE STUDY MORE IN DEPT THAN WHATEVER YOU ARE STUDYING.&Facilities plays a MAJOR aspect in this field.The presence of an air conditioned room IS VERY DIFFERENT.I say this because i was from a private school and my school used to be air conditioned.When over there, i can sit and concentrate even though my school hours there are from 7.30am till 4pm(not including coco activities yet).and after that, i would still have the energy to change and participate in an activity till 5 or 6pm.Now, even up till 12pm, im already dead tired.And yes, im not the only one. Most of my classmates(and even the other 6th formers in other classes)are already practically dead by then.

Besides air conds, why are we tired you might ask?you all forget that majority of us 6th formers ARE NOT WELL OFF.

Public transport is a REAL PAIN.IF YOUR LIFESTYLE DOES NOT INVOLVE TAKING IT EVERYDAY, DONT YOU EVER DARE COME TO US AND SAY ITS NOT A BIG DEAL BECAUSE IT IS.Malaysian public transport is not exactly very convenient in some cases.The last time i took public transport home, it took me 3hr.I had to take 2 buses and an LRT to get home.even AFTER that, i still have to walk around 200m to get home from the bus stop.

So after that, would you still wanna go home and think; "LETS OPEN MY BOOKS NOW AND STUDY!"?HELL. NO.

AND YOU HAVE TO TAKE TO AN ACCOUNT ALSO, some of us actually use public transport to AND fro school.My friend wakes up everyday at 3.30am in order to make sure he manages to get to school in time around 7am.(he leaves his house around 4am)

I do admit in the essay, he might be overdoing it with the skin cancer, but i would like to also point out, that in this day and age, especially in the afternoon, walking under the sun...NOT FUN.

So there, some of the things i would like to point out after reading a few of the comments that kept stressing how much hes complaining.

Overall i admit i am happy with whatever i have now.All the hardships made me grow as a person, not only intellectually.Added to the fact i have 2 years in my hands to think about what i want to pursue in the future. i am grateful in that sense.

but i would like to stress(and the thing that made me stir up and write this whole thing down here), if you dont know what we're experiencing just so that we can continue our studies at minimum wage to help our parents, dont you dare ever tell us we're bitchy, whiny or like to complain.Or else, why dont you continue with form 6 after your SPM?

Um..no offense but you whine too much. I'm going to form 6 this May. Although I don't know what its like in Form 6 but I'm sure I will overcome all the problems and go through thick and thins.My secondary school personally has this "law" that ALL students MUST take at least 4 co-curiculum (uniform bodies, clubs, sports, house). I personally enter St.John Ambulance, English Club, Volleyball and Yellow House. Yes, I admit it's tiring, but it's worth it.These activities usually ends around 4pm / 4.30pm / 5.00pm but me and my friends didn't mine. I remember one of my tuition starts on 4.30pm till 7pm, my St.John ends at 4.00pm. I'm the president of St.John, so it's more tiring as I need to conduct the uniform bodies. We ate in the canteen and straight rush for tuition (2 years).When we arrive home, it is already 7.30pm / 8pm (if my mom's late). I didn't watch tv (no time). When reach home, I straight bath, have dinner then sit down, complete my homework and study. I know I'm dmn tired at that time but I still keep hanging on because...I can only take SPM once in my life time. The SPM result is sticking with you for the rest of our lives.

It is kinda mean to defy a student mindlessly for a little flaw in his/her remarks, if most of the viewpoints are correct.

To Anonymous at 1/22/11 9:46 p.m. Your post is awesome!

I must add that TIME MANAGEMENT ISN’T AN ISSUE FOR STPM, THERE IS NO TIME TO MANAGE. What matters are full commitment, hard-work, sacrifice and efficiency. The syllabus is very wide and the STPM students need to study everything in depth. If you think time management is burning the midnight oil after the hectic extra-curricular activities, please understand that brains have its limit. MIND ACTIVITIES ARE VERY TIRING, TACKLING STPM NEEDS PROFOUND UNDERSTANDING AND CONSTANT PRACTISE. It can’t possibly be done after such a demanding school life.

And don’t forget, THE GOVERNMENT UNI ONLY RESERVES VERY LIMITED PLACE FOR STPM STUDENTS”. Try thinking on behalf of STPM students, some of them are not affordable to study in any places else if they don’t get a place in local uni. Getting a place in government uni would mean everything to them. And the selection is “meritocratic”, which means they needs to compete with matriculation students who are having an easier exam.

If the students are impeded from scoring well in STPM due to the R&D and the presentation works in form 6, these activities are merely wasted. Do you know how long it takes to prepare for a Powerpoint slide in details on a topic which is not in your syllabus? Can you imagine doing it for 2 topics a week? What happens if the students learn the presentation skills but not getting a place in local uni?

And lots of form 6 students are going to school to and fro by public transport. This extended timetable would really prove inconvenience to them. PUBLIC TRANSPORT IS A REAL PAIN. For some students, taking public transport would turn ½ hours driving into 2 hours journey on the bus/train.

STPM has already got a sound curriculum. What the government need to do isn’t adding hours to pressurise students. If they really want to help STPM students, please give them more chance to obtain the government scholarship. It is pathetic to hear many STPM students get a place in the prestigious uni like Oxbridge but don’t get any scholarship (even loan) from the PSD or other government agencies. It happens every year.

well...the real problem is the ministry of education...they don't know how to do their work properly....what did they do???copy this system,then copy another system....each time they change the minister of education they change the system....they think we the students robot ah?????can easily absorb....& they also don't have a lot qualified & experienced teacher....train your teacher la...so that they can serve the country better...to produce better generation...& 1 more thing they should fixed the silibus because the whole malaysia is taken the same exam...i'm taking form 6....each time we ask teacher what book to refer,they said there,s no fixed book...just buy any book...what kind of stupid answer is that....dah la they don't teach properly....now they ask us to buy any book we like...how the hell are we suppose to know????